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Daedelus Rising

Over the course of his ten-year career, outré hip-hop producer Daedelus has worked the margins as a lonely voice of irreverence. His woozy melodies, low-and-slow bass lines and ironic vocal snippets have been whimsical and strange. And while other millennial experimental hip-hop producers resembled dystopian garbage men conjuring a coming apocalypse (that never quite came), Daedelus dressed in the soft velvets of a Victorian dandy and riffed on the corniness of meteorologists on 2003’s excellent Rethinking the Weather.

"Overwhelmed feat. Bilal (Star Slinger Remix)" Daedelus

"Sew, Darn, Mend" Daedelus

To say he’s matured in recent years isn’t to say he’s grown stale. 2011’s Bespoke still contains enough musical trap doors and sly genre-hopping to make your head spin, but the album’s procession of accomplished guest vocalist lends it a little weight. “Overwhelmed,” one of the album’s strongest tracks, features Detroit R&B singer Bilal, a member of the Soulquarians collective along with Common, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, and D’Angelo. Here, the crooner’s voice is blurred and submerged in a tight lattice of dissonance. And while lyrics are largely indiscernible, his purr reaches for something just out of the frame. Add Star Slinger’s remix of that track to your library for free, and also check out our exclusive interview with the LA-based producer. – Sam Chennault